Closure unit



May 12, 1959 H. B, I ERMER CLOSURE UNIT Filed Jan. 16, 1956 E /e a d W 2l, k fffffffff l..

/75 ER/MER 'f l 2,886,209 i n, l. cLosURnUNrr Herma'xr'. Lermer; South Orange; NJ., assi/gnor to Circle Y Plastics l0105 rGarwood, N.I:., a corporation of New Jersey'l r Applicationlanuary 16V, 1956-,. Serial No. 559,209

l Claim. (Cl. 221-299) This invention'relates to a closure unit adapted to be secured; to the openend of a container. for closing the same a nd.-toy enable the user to discharge articles from the container singlyas desired.

The invention may be applied to containers of any; desired: conventionall or custom outline.` The invention providesnovel' means for automatically preventing discharge of more than one article at a time through the aperture of the closure unit.

These and other advantageous objects, which will appear from the drawings and from the description hereinafter, are accomplished by the structure of my invention, of which an embodiment is illustrated in the drawings. It will be apparent, from a consideration of said drawings and the following description, that the invention may be embodied in other forms suggested thereby, and such other forms as come within the scope of the appended claim are to be considered within the scope and purview of the instant invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a closure unit embodying the invention,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view thereof shown applied to the open end of a container and closing the same,

Fig. 3 is a medial, vertical sectional view thereof,

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of another form of disc which may be used in carrying out my invention, and

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3, showing the cap portion of the closure unit rotated for registering the opening thereof with the article receiving opening of the disc of said unit, the container being shown inverted for discharge of an article as indicated by the arrow.

As shown in the drawings, the closure unit of this invention comprises a disc having an opening 11 at its center and having one or more article discharge openings 12, 12a, 12b (any number of discharge openings higher than one may be used as desired, or only one such opening may be provided in the disc 10). Such openings are spaced from the center of the disc. The disc is proportioned to be lpositioned within and to close the open end 13 of the container 14 for the discharge of articles 15.

An article separator frame 16 is provided, having a reduced medial stem 17 proportioned to be freely rotatably received in the central opening 11 of the disc 10. A lateral article deecting lin 18 is provided on the frame 16 to overlie the inner face 19 of the disc 10'when the parts are positioned in the container. A cap 25 is provided proportioned to freely t over the top of the container and in superposed relation to the upper face 20 of the disc 10. Said cap has a discharge opening 26 located for registry with the article discharge opening 12 of the disc on rotation of the cap on the container end (Fig, 4). The cap is further provided with a stem portion 27 depending from the cap and proportioned to be freely received in the central opening 11 of the disc 10; complementary keying means such as a key and keyway provided on the stems 27 and 17 of the cap 25 and frame 16 are provided for keying 2,886,209 Patented May. 12, 11959 them together for'rotation in registry. It willxbe under-1 stood that the key 28 [shown on the stern 27 of thecap 25 might, instead, be on the1stemf17 of the framev y16, iny whichca'sefthekeyway 29 would be provided on the stem` 27 on. the.cap,25. It will also be understood that `the'keyi and keyway arrangement shown, may bedispensed withv `iti-,favor of: an)r other complementary. means` keying. the

frame. and eap together for rotation in. registry. It is desirable: thatzthe cap, andv frame be rotated in registry. andthat. they be keyed togetherin: such relative arrange-- ment (asshownzin. drawings) that the lateralv deilecting; n 1'8V will be. in registry with theopening 26 of the capa (Figs. 3 andS) ,atallf times, sothat whensaidopeningtofs saidcap is rotatedv intoregistry. with the opening` 1:2v ofi the.disc.10 and anr article 151 is disposed in! said opening-.ot thedisc, thezparts being inthezinverted Fig. 5- position, such articlewill drop through: the: discharge openingf 26 of. the cap.. In this position'v ofi the parts, the'iin 18.will, overliethe discV opening.. and preventadditional articles from passing.v throughthe-.disc'l and cap openings. The

, disc opening isi proportioned to'. receive only one articleataftirne. Fheframe 17 may be solproportionedv that .they outer side wall 30 thereof and the inner Wall 31 of the container 14 will define an article receiving space 32 only great enough to receive articles in one predetermined planar disposition thereof, preventing more than one article being disposed at any point between the inner Wall of the container and side wall of the frame (Fig. 5). Thus, in the case of llat tablets, space 32 will be slightly greater than the thickness of the tablet but less than the diameter of the tablet. As a result, the tablets will be disposed edgewise in the space 32 and not more than one of such tablets will be disposed at any one point in said space so that only one tablet may drop down into the opening 12 (or into each of the openings 12, 12a, 12b). Therefore only one tablet will -be dispensed from the opening 26 of the cap 25 when the said opening 26 is registered with such opening of the disc.

Disc 10 may be provided with a circumferential outer ilange 33 defining, with the outer wall of the disc, a shouldered edge 34 to engage the upper edge of the container. The cap and disc may be provided with interengaging means, such as protuberances 35 on the cap 25 to be received in recessed portions 36 in the disc 10 for interengagement to hold the cap against accidental displacement on registry of the cap opening with a disc opening, thus requiring a certain affirmative physical exertion to rotate the cap out of such position. The cap 25 may be provided with a depending outer ange 37 to overlie the upper edges of the container. While the invention has been described as applied to a container for dispensing tablets, it will be understood that it may be utilized for dispensing of any other articles. The device may be made of plastic or other material, so proportioned that the parts 25 and 16 may be force itted together (or sealed together) and freely rotatable relative the disc 10, and disc 10 may be force fitted into the upper end of the container so that the parts may be reused if desired, or the disc might be permanently sealed thereinto if desired.

The relative dimensions of the discharge openings, such as 12, 12a and 12b and the spacing of the side and inner walls 30, 31 of the container are predetermined according to the dimensions of the article to be dispensed by the use of the closure unit of this invention. Thus, for example, in the case of flat tablets and-the like such as are shown at 15 in Fig. 5, the article discharge openings in the disc 10 might be of the dimensions shown in Fig. I, and the spacing of the walls 30, 31 might be such as shown in Figs. 3 and 5. In the case of elongated, cylinder-like articles such as pills, etc. of such conlguration, the article discharge openings 12, 12a and 12b might be correspondingly formed -of greater length, in which case the member 10 would be similarly formed of greater length, as shown in Fig. 4.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureA by Letters Patent is:

.A closure unit adapted to be secured to the open end of a-container for controlled discharge, singly, of articles from the container, comprising a disc, proportioned to be positioned within. and to close lthe open end of the container, said dis'c having a medial opening and having a plurality of slots extending circumferentially inwardly thereof circumferentially spaced from each other and radially spaced from said opening, each of said slots being proportioned to receive one of the articles positioned in the container, a cap proportioned to slidably overlie the free end'of the container and disc, an article separator trame: :rigidly secured to said cap for rotation in unison therewith,rextending freely through said medial opening of -the disc and having a. separator frame portion disposed in the container, said frame portion in lthe container being soproportioned as to define, with the container, an article receiving space only great enough to receive articles in one predetermined planar disposition thereof, 'preventing more than one article being disposed at any pointy between' the inner wall of the container and inside wall ofthe frame, said cap having an opening radially 4 disposed for selective alignment with the disc slots on rotation of the cap over the disc, for discharge of one article through the cap opening when such article is positioned therein from one of the circumferential slots of the disc, and a ange extending laterally of -the article separator frame within the container and underlying the closure disc and terminating justshort of the inner wall of the container, said flange being disposed on the separator frame in alignment with the opening of the cap so that as an article is ,discharged from a disc opening and through the cap opening, the ange willI bedisposed aligned with the disc opening, within the container, and additional articles will be prevented from passing from the container into the disc opening and thus through the cap opening. Y

References Cited in the tile of this patent V.UNITED STATES PATENTSI 928,052 Hirsch July 13, 1909 1,958,101 Duell ..-n May 8,1934 2,227,167 Warren ---n Dec. 3l, 1940 2,630,245 Maier Mar.rv 3, 1953 2,649,994 Lewis et al. Aug. 25, 1953 2,664,223 Dobkin Dec. 29, 1953 

